SPIRITUAL LIVING
WHAT is spirituality? Being spiritual means to live a Godoriented life. The spiritually inclined elevate themselves in their thinking, and begin to live on a higher divine plane— they remain undisturbed in the face of provocation, their mental balance is not upset by unpleasant experiences, and the trying behaviour of someone else does not arouse any feelings of anger in them. Living strictly by their principles, the mental level of spiritual people becomes so high that stones cast by others cannot reach them. In spirituality, they find such sublimity that all else pales into insignificance. Spirituality is in itself such a great virtue that the seeker after divine bliss need not quest any further.
How does one attain spirituality? There are two major schools of spirituality—one based on meditation and the other on contemplation. The former relates to feelings ascribed to the ‘heart’ and the latter relates to the mind.
According to meditation or the spirituality of the heart, people usually assume that the further away they move from material things, the more spiritual they become. This is the feeling that drives people to leave behind their material lives entirely. The Monk, in the well-known book ‘The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari’, discovers what he believes to be the key to spirituality only after abandoning his material life entirely. Meditation is one way to put aside thoughts of their material lives, and people all over the world rely on it to try to achieve spirituality.
True spirituality is based on contemplation and reflection, which have to do with intellectual activity.
There are many methods of meditation for spiritual discipline, which have been prevalent in one form or the other for centuries. It is generally believed that while intellectual development is grounded in formal education, meditation is an informal, independent discipline that can lead to spirituality. When people clear their minds of thoughts of the material and try to become one with the spiritual through particular practices, and chants, they experience a feeling that can be likened to ecstasy.
This is a form of pleasure that is unknown to them. On the basis of their experience, they begin to associate ecstasy with spirituality. However, ecstasy is only a reduced form of spirituality.
We are intellectual beings. We have been given the ability to think and to reason, which is our greatest faculty. It is the possession of this faculty and our independent thinking, which distinguishes us from all other creatures. Real spirituality is that which is achieved by our minds. This is called contemplative spirituality. Any form of spirituality attained at a lesser level is not true spirituality.
True spirituality, therefore, is based on contemplation and reflection, which have to do with intellectual activity. True spirituality is the result of giving serious thought to such questions as, ‘who am I?’, ‘what is the purpose of my life?’ and ‘what happens when I die?’. There are many questions, but all the answers lie in a rational understanding of the creation plan of God. By looking for rational answers to such questions, we can achieve spirituality at the intellectual level.
The journey towards spirituality begins with the urge to search for the truth.
The journey towards spirituality begins with the urge to search for the truth. When people discover the truth and learn of the plan of the Creator, their lives enter a new phase, that of building their personalities according to spiritual principles.
This journey is purely intellectual in nature. Its quest is two-fold—to solve the riddle of why everyone goes through negative experiences in this world, and to offer positive solutions. It addresses the paradox of our having been given the freedom to make our own moral choices, and our frequent misuse of this freedom—actions which repeatedly present us with situations where people react in anger and incur loss.
According to the heart-based spirituality, or meditation, the only way to truly remain spiritual is to retire to a desolate place, far from civilization, where there is no provocation.
Contemplative spirituality, however, differs considerably from this point of view. Spirituality is based on intellectual awakening. It is not a passive experience. By understanding the Creation Plan of God, and by developing clear thinking and the ability to re-examine any situation, we can convert negative influences and experiences into positive ones. We can take spiritual lessons from material experiences. This is the best formula for character building; it will give us great strength, promote all that is good, and destroy all that is evil.